The newest IronKey is as tough as ever and its cryptographic technology rates even higher with the government. Its password manager is much improvedeasier to use, better organized, and capable of handling just about any login. If you need to protect sensitive data while transporting it, IronKey is for you.

Improved Password Management
The identity manager feature is a big step up from the S100's password manager. It's much more powerful and flexible. For now, it lacks the general-purpose form-filling capacity of its predecessor, as IronKey is still working on upgrading that component. But form-filling isn't nearly as central to security as password management.

When you log into a secure site using Internet Explorer or the onboard Firefox, identity manager pops up and offers to save your credentials. Like LastPass 1.5, IronKey lets you save in a specific folder, but, unlike LastPass, IronKey doesn't let you create that folder on the spot.

Next time you visit the site, identity manager fills in your credentials for you. Better yet, click the new IronKey icon in your browser's title bar and choose the site from the menu that appears. This will both navigate to the site and log you on.

Some sites use non-standard fields for login. Clicking the Advanced Add button brings up a multi-tabbed dialog that lets you add any fields found on the page and identify them as username and password. Another tab lets you define whether the login applies to the entire domain, the subdomain (if any), or just the current pagethat helps when you hit one of the multi-page logins popular with bank sites. I found that identity manager handled every site I threw at it, even some with really odd login systems.

Identity manager can now import login credentials stored in Internet Explorer and Firefox. In addition it will import data from RoboForm Pro 6.0 and KeePass Password Safe. There's no import option for LastPass, but I found that in Internet Explorer identity manager would happily capture information that was automatically entered by LastPass. Identity manager can also manage passwords for e-mail clients and other non-browser applications that require login.

In the main identity manager window you can create folders and easily organize your logins using drag and dropthe folder structure becomes the menu structure for the titlebar menu. Password generation is much improved, with options that will let it match the password policy for any web site. Like LastPass and RoboForm it can even avoid easily confused characters like zero and capital O.

Here's an exciting new feature. Many Web sites, including eBay, PayPal, and GEICO, support Verisign Identity Protection. This feature requires the use of a one-time password at each login, generated by a security token you carry around. Your IronKey will not only act as the password-generating token, it will also fill in the one-time password for you. If you see the Verisign VIP icon on a Web site, enabling this feature will give that account two-factor protection.

IronKey is still the only USB drive that I'd run over with a tractor. It's secure enough for government black ops, and for us non-spooks the improved password management is a real boon. I haven't come across any secure USB drive that's nearly as tough as IronKey.

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Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted by readers. By 1990, he had become PC Magazine's technical editor, and a coast-to-coast telecommuter. His "User to User" column supplied readers with tips...
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